All Stories by Helen Thompson
- Archaeology
Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles
Why did ancient Assyrians bury their dead with turtles? The reptiles may have served as symbolic protectors of the dead.
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- Microbes
Diverse yeasts make their home on coffee and cacao beans
Yeasts in coffee and cacao are shaped by geography and human migration, genetic analysis finds.
- Genetics
Zika may have flown to Brazil in 2013
The brand of Zika currently floating around the Americas traces its origins to Asia and may have arrived in Brazil by air as early as 2013.
- Life
How Paralympic sprinters lose speed on curves
Amputee runners may lose more speed on curves when the leg on the inside of the curve is the one bearing a prosthetic, a biomechanics study finds.
- Animals
Great tits sing with syntax
Humans are no longer the only species to use compositional syntax. Great tits do, too.
- Animals
These beetles use surface tension to water-ski
Waterlily beetles are in for a fast and bumpy ride as they fly across ponds, researchers find.
- Paleontology
Fossil reveals an ancient arthropod’s nervous system
A roughly 520-million-year-old fossil preserved an ancient arthropod’s ventral nerve cord and peripheral nerves.
- Environment
Low levels of radiation from Fukushima persist in seafood
Aquatic species in Japan contain low levels of radioactive cesium, but some freshwater species risk high contamination.
- Environment
California gas leak spewed massive amounts of methane
New estimates suggest that a 2015 natural gas well blowout injected tons of greenhouse gases into the Los Angeles atmosphere.
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